This morning Pema Chödrön’s Facebook page shared a quote from her book, No Time to Lose: “The next time you go out in the world, you might try this practice: directing your attention to people—in their cars, on the sidewalk, talking on their cell phones—just wish for them all to be happy and well.“
It reminded me of various times over the past 32 years when I’ve asked Lama Norlha Rinpoche for advice about a particular enterprise I was considering engaging in, and he has responded, “More benefit to say om mani peme hung.”
Well over halfway through my life, I have come to the conclusion that most of my everyday thoughts are not really worth thinking. I don’t mean to discourage anyone else, this is just my own personal experience. And I do find some kinds of thoughts useful, such as those needed to navigate immediate, practical problems or to analyze important issues around which my actions may affect the well being of my community or the world.
But these days as I walk around and go about my daily business I often chant mani’s to myself, or other mantras, or do practices such as tonglen (taking and sending) or the type of practice Pema Chödrön is describing, just noticing people, animals, insects, birds, and wishing them well in their lives.
So…as you are reading this, please accept my best wishes for everything in your life to flourish and bring you happiness. Om mani peme hung!
I am really glad I have come across your blog.
Thank you so much for writing this.
It is my deep desire to do the three-year retreat someday (soon enough, i hope) but i am yet battling with my fears. Simple things…..like- I don’t want to come back to a stressful job in an office after that. I wish I could remain in those settings forever. Or at least do something as useful.
But then again, I don’t want to become a Tibetan nun. I don’t want to restrict myself to only Tibetan Buddhism since there is much elsewhere which does make a lot of sense to me.
So……..
I don’t know when or whether my life will be ready for it.
I would like to know more about how exactly did you manage to come out in the world after the retreat? I’m sure nobody wants to return. So, what do you do? How do you manage?